360 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 231. 



of these plants by the study of Professor Bailey's paper, which 

 is one of the most important contributions to American 

 garden literature which has appeared in recent years. 



Notes. 



A correspondent of the American Florist writes that Mr. 

 Robert Craig considers Mrs. Whiildin the best early Chrysan- 

 themum. Mr. W. K. Harris, on the contrary, thinks that El- 

 dorado is the best market flower of the early yellow varieties. 



Governor Russell, of Massachusetts, has appointed Charles 

 Francis Adams, of Ouincy, Philip A. Chase, of Lynn, and Wm. 

 de las Casas, of MaTden, members of the Metropolitan Park 

 Commission, which is constituted to report to the ne.\t Legis- 

 lature a plan for a system of ample open spaces for the cities 

 and towns in the vicinity of Boston. 



We have a note from Messrs. Thomas Meehan & Sons say- 

 ing that if our correspondent quoted on page 348 had sent for 

 all the catalogues advertised in our columns he would have 

 found that the Prairie Rose was on sale at one establishment 

 at least. Rosa setigera has been offered for many years by 

 Thomas Meehan & Sons, of Germantown. 



Mr. A. J. Drexel, of Philadelphia, has recently presented to 

 the Horticultural Commissioners of the World's Fair a remark- 

 ably fine specimen of Licuala grandis from his private collec- 

 tion. The plant in question is in a sixteen-inch pot, and car- 

 ries twenty-eight leaves, and is without doubt one of the finest 

 examples of this rare Palm in the United States. 



Young trees of Robinia viscosa liave made a strong 

 growth this year on account of the abundant rainfall, and the 

 new shoots are now bearing a second crop of racemes of 

 bright rose-colored flowers. This tree seems to be more 

 popular in European gardens than it is in its native country, 

 but its excellent habit, good foliage and attractive flowers com- 

 mend it where trees of medium size are needed. 



The diploma of the German Society for the advancement of 

 horticulture has been bestowed upon Herr Kittel, of Eckers- 

 dorf, for a hybrid Vriesea (V. hybrida pommer Escheana), the 

 offspring of V. psittacina Morreniana and V. splendens, whicli 

 the judges described as superior to either of its parents, and 

 in both habit and flower an exceptionally interesting novelty, 

 adapted to cultivation by amateurs as well as florists. 



At this season, when shrubs in flower are rare, Cytisus nigri- 

 cans makes a very bright show with yellow pea-shaped blos- 

 soms on its erect and slender branches, which rise to the 

 height of eighteen inches or more above the ground. It has 

 been long cultivated in the gardens of Europe, but for some 

 reason it is still rarely seen m America, although it is per- 

 fectly hardy and very desirable among dwarf-growing shrubs, 

 of which we have none too many. 



Baron Todaro, Professor of Botany in the University of 

 Palermo and Director of the Botanic Garden of that city, died 

 on the iSth of April, and has been succeeded by Dr. Hermann 

 Rast. Todaro is known by his publications on various species 

 of the Cotton-plant, on Agaves, Aloes and other plants culti- 

 vated in the Palermo garden. In addition to his scientific 

 pursuits, he was a lawyer of reputation, and was actively inter- 

 ested in the political affairs of his country. 



In the ancient days of Rome a bride always gathered with 

 her own hands the flowers which were to form her wreath. 

 Ordinary torches were made of Fir or Pine wood, but the 

 torches carried in wedding processions were of the wood of the 

 White Thorn, as this tree was sacred to Ceres and was con- 

 sidered a talisman against evil ; and, upon entering Iheir home, 

 the newly married pair knelt together by the hearth and 

 lighted their fire witli one of the White Thorn torches. 



The Horse-chestnut and our native Buckeyes are among the 

 early-blooming trees, but the Dwarf Buckeye (/Esculus parvi- 

 flora) has the advantage of blooming when shrubs in 

 flower are not abundant. This plant, which is a native of our 

 southern Alleghany region, attains a height of from six to eight 

 feet, and spreads in a few years to make a bush ten feet in 

 diameter, and from this mound of bright green foliage rise in 

 late July hundreds of tall cream-white flower-spikes which 

 give the shrub a most striking appearance. 



"No effort to create an impossible or purely ideal land- 

 scape," says Mr. Lafcadio Hearn, "is made in the Japanese 

 garden. Its artistic purpose is to copy faithfully the attractions 

 of a veritable landscape, and to convey the real impression 

 that a real landscape conveys. It is, therefore, at once a pic- 



ture and a poem ; perhaps even more a poem than a picture. 

 For, as nature's scenery, in its varying aspects, affects us with 

 sensations of joy or of solemnity, of grimness or of sweetness, 

 of force or of peace, so must the true reflection of it in the 

 labor of the landscape-gardener create not merely an impres- 

 sion of beauty, but a mood in the soul." 



Former attempts to transplant Cocoanut-trees from the 

 tropics to the greenhouses of San Francisco have been unsuc- 

 cessful, but the authorities of Golden Gate Park hope for a 

 better result with a fine specimen which recently arrived 

 there. It came as a present from Queen Kapiolani of the 

 Hawaiian Islands, and was the best specimen which could be 

 procured within easy distance from the port of Honolulu, the 

 object being to secure a fruiting tree not too tall for trans- 

 portation. It is about thirty feet in height. Its branches were 

 so carefully packed in sacking that neither the leaves nor the 

 fruit were injured, and its roots were protected by a strong 

 box. It was brought by horse-power from its native spot to 

 the coast, and again from the wharf at San Francisco to the 

 park. Great haste had to be used to prevent its being chilled 

 by the cold Californian winds, but in three hours after its 

 arrival at the park it was safely housed in the main gallery of 

 the greenhouse. It is the largest example yet brought to San 

 Francisco, but promises to live and thrive. 



An article on the Great Pine of Japan, called Dai Matsu, 

 which stands on the coast of the inland sea of Biroa, about 

 three miles from Otsu, was recently published in Gartenflora. 

 It says that the priests who have charge of the tree declare that 

 it was mentioned in the records of their cloister eight hundred 

 years ago, and that it was planted in the year A. D. 675. It is 

 counted among the eight wonders of Japan, and its singular 

 aspect, as it stretches its long branches far out on every side 

 over a scaffolding formed by more than three hundred poles, 

 has been pictured in many books of travel. Although it is 

 fully exposed to the wind, and although its trunks and branches 

 bear more than one lightning-scar, it is still vigorous, and only 

 a gradual thinning-out of its foliage bears witness to its great 

 antiquity. At two feet above the ground the diameter of its 

 trunk is fifteen feet nine inches ; its height is eighty-four feet, 

 and the diameter of its widely-stretched crown is 242 feet. 

 Four houses formerly stood among its branches, but two of 

 them were ruined in a great storm a few years ago. The other 

 two are still largely resorted to by supper-parfles on summer 

 evenings, and the Japanese take especial delight in listening to 

 the dripping of rain into the water from the boughs as they 

 overhang the sea. The writer of this article could not defi- 

 nitely ascertain to what species of Pine the famous tree be- 

 longs, but says it is possibly an example of Pinus densiflora, 

 or more probably of P. Thunbergii. 



"The art of the Japanese gardener," writes Sir Edwin Ar- 

 nold, "had turned our little plot of a couple of acres into the 

 appearance of a large and various pleasaunce, with miniature 

 hills — from which you could see the towering snows of Fuji 

 San — fish-ponds, rock-works, trellised arbors, and clumps of 

 flowers and bushes, which gave us an unbroken succession of 

 floral wealth. Scattered about the grounds were stone lamps 

 called Ishi doro, and grotesque demons, and quaint water- 

 cisterns in stone with Chinese inscriptions. Around these first 

 came into bloom, defying snow and frost, the beautiful red and 

 white and striped Camellias. When these had fallen the white 

 and pink and rose-red Plum-flowers filled the eye with beauty. 

 Afterward the Azaleas blazed, like burning bushes all round 

 the Lotus-pond ; and these were followed by a delicious out- 

 burst of pale, rose-tinted Cherry-blossoms, making an avenue 

 of beauty and glory all the way from the Shinto temple at our 

 gate to the front door, where were suspended the little, indis- 

 pensable, but useless fire-engine and the bronze gong on 

 which visitors beat with a little wooden hammer to announce 

 their arrival. The Wistaria and a second crop of Camellias, 

 and then some red and yellow roses, took up the running, and 

 the Maple-bushes came out resplendent with blood-red leaves ; 

 after which there were purple Irises and Callas flowering by 

 the fish-pond, witli orange and red Lilies brighter than the 

 gold-fish swimming in it, and the lawn became covered with 

 a pretty little flower called the Neji-bana, the pink buds of 

 which, growing diagonally and reaching round to get the sun- 

 light, twisted the stem into the shape of a corkscrew. Thus, 

 along with the sprays of the Firs and Loquats and ornamental 

 shrubs, our gardener — • whom we christened the ' Ace of 

 Spades,' out of 'Alice through the Looking-glass,' and who 

 wore a blue coat with white dragons upon it — was never des- 

 titute of delightful material wherewith to exercise the high art 

 of decorating our rooms after the great sesthetic Enshin 

 fashion." 



